62 Singing Valleys 



Virginia. True, the yield per acre was not so great. But as a 

 food supply for a fishing fleet and a few fishing villages, it 

 would be adequate. And maize, as he well knew from his ex- 

 perience on the James, gave its harvest with so little labor that 

 its cultivation would not interfere overmuch with the fisher- 

 men's chief occupations. It had, he continued, other proper- 

 ties which gave it advantage over wheat. No mill was needed 

 to grind it. It could be used in a variety of ways; as bread, as 

 porridge, as hominy, as samp; or stewed with beans into a 

 toothsome dish the Indians of Virginia called succoquatash. 

 In short, Indian corn was the answer to the problem of the 

 hour. The New England codfish and mackerel, plus the Indian 

 corn, would balance the British budget. 



Meanwhile, another result of John Smith's voyage of 1614 

 was developing. One of his ships, under Thomas Hunt, had 

 coasted along the indented shores of Buzzards Bay. There 

 Hunt, though it was strictly against orders, kidnapped twenty 

 Patuxets. He knew better than to take them to England where 

 the Captain's eye might fall on them and on him. Accordingly, 

 he sailed for Spain where folks were not so squeamish about a 

 little slave trading on the side. In Malaga he offered his cap- 

 tives for sale. Some friars interfered, however, and had the 

 Indians released. 



One of the twenty Patuxets, whose name has come down 

 to us as Squanto, was taken into the service of a British mer- 

 chant, the treasurer of the Newfoundland Company. He took 

 the Indian to London and taught him to speak English. A year 

 or two later, this same Squanto was sent to accompany Cap- 

 tain Thomas Dermer, "a brave, stout gentleman . . . em- 

 ployed by Sir Ferdinando Gorges for discovery" to Newfound- 

 land to report on the fisheries, talk of which had been stirred 

 up by Captain John Smith. 



Leaving Newfoundland in the early Spring of 1620, at the 

 very time the Separatists of Reverend John Robinson's congre- 

 gation in Leyden were studying John Smith's map of New 

 England and writing to the Company in London relative to 



